Highway Robbery

In the mid -19th century highwaymen and bushrangers were rife in the Midlands.  One of the most likely places to be held up was north of Cleveland through the heavily wooded Epping Forest.

Riders and coaches would travel in convoy on that part of the road, hoping for a safer journey; some bushrangers were more effective than others, however.  In 1855 a John Quigley was at large in Cleveland.  Two men arrived at the Campbell Town races saying they had been robbed by him that morning.  Later that day when the stage coach from the north arrived, there was the bandit in question, pale and wounded and trussed up like a chicken on top of the coach. 

At his trial Quigley refused to utter a word and was sent to an asylum.  Many others were hanged for their crimes and very few were able, like the 'gentleman bushranger' Martin Cash, to actually live to an old age and tell their own story.